In a final spurt, many drivers in Saxony quickly exchanged old paper driving licenses for new documents before the end of the third exchange wave. "The pattern is the same as in previous years: There is an increase in applications from December to February," said a spokesperson for the city of Dresden during a survey conducted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur in the major cities. During the other months, the number of applications is lower and the processing time is shorter. In a third wave, those born between 1965 and 1970 were asked to exchange their old driving licenses for new documents in credit card format by 19 January.
The European Union had stipulated that all driving licenses issued before 19 January 2013 must be exchanged for the standard EU driving license by 2033. The Federal Council had decided on a phased plan for this. According to this plan, those born between 1953 and 1958 were first to be exchanged by July 2022 and those born between 1959 and 1964 by January 19, 2023.
According to the Ministry of Transport, it is not known how many drivers in Saxony are affected by the exchange campaign. The ADAC had estimated that around 15 million paper driving licenses and around 28 million driving licenses in cheque card format issued between 1999 and 2013 are affected in Germany.
